Once Upon A Nightmare
by Reeves3
Summary: Takes place after S2E1: Broken. After a nightmare involving her son Emma wakes up, scared and lost in the Fairy Tale World with Sleeping Beauty and Mulan. Luckily Snow White is there to comfort her. Charming Family. Mother and Daughter bonding. R&R but most of all ENJOY!


**Disclaimer: I don't own anything that you recognise. **

**Author's Note: I have no clue where this idea came from really...probably my thing called a brain. I just knew after watching Broken I needed to write some Mother and Daughter bonding between Snow White and Emma.  
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**I just love Once Upon A Time and the Charming Family - James, Snow, Emma and Henry - and I can't wait for more scenes with them in.  
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**This fanfic takes off after Season 2. Episode 1. So spoilers if you haven't watched that episode yet.  
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**I hope you enjoy it.  
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**Reeves3.  
**

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**Once Upon A Nightmare**

Emma's dream started out from a memory. It was her first day as Deputy in Storybrooke and she was steadily being lowered into the dark abyss that was the elevator shaft. She held on tightly to the wire supporting her weight as the voices of the towns people above became distant murmurs the further down she went. After what seemed like eternity, her feet eventually touched solid ground but this is where her memory faded and the nightmare began.

She was standing in the cave where her battle with the dragon had taken place and by the sound of the deep rumbling echoing out throughout the cavern the dragon appeared to be alive somewhere and sleeping.

_"Emma?"_ a frightened voice called out in the shadows. Emma turned to face the direction the sound had come from. Her eyes squinted through the darkness. It was impossible to see where she was stepping.

_"Henry?"_ she whispered back. A flash light suddenly shined in her face blinding her with a yellow light but her vision adjusted quickly and she saw Henry holding up his torch and standing by Snow White's broken glass coffin. Relief flooded through Emma. _"There you are! Come on, I'm going to get you out of here."_

Grinning Henry ran towards her but halfway he tripped over a gap and yelled out. Behind Henry two greenish yellow glowing eyes appeared and a torrent of fire burst up into the cavern roof that illuminated the cave.

_"Emma! Help!"_ shouted Henry. Fear and adrenalin pumped through Emma's body and while she was still attached to the harness Emma ran forward. Henry's ankle was stuck in the crevice as Emma approached and she quickly got his foot free. The dragon let out another roar as it spotted them and raised its front paw ready to squish them. Picking up Henry off the dirt and dusty ground Emma carried Henry back and seconds later the dragon's front paw crashed down where they had just been standing.

_"PULL US UP!"_ Emma screamed to the sky. Henry held on to her tightly, his arms strangling her neck as he watched the dragon growl and shoot flames from its mouth. With a sudden jolt the cable started to wind back up. With hungry eyes the dragon watched as its lunch hovering in the air and swung from side to side. It approached Emma and Henry with a few steps and reached out its neck to take a snap. They could smell rotting flesh and ash on the dragon's breath as it came closer. This was it. This was the end.

_"Protect me Emma. Don't let me go,"_ Henry cried into her shoulder.

_"I won't kid, I won't. I've got you,"_ promised Emma. She squashed a kiss down on the top of his head and closed her eyes tight shut. A light flashed behind her eyes and then a voice echoed down from above.

_"Have you got him? Have you got my son?"_ Regina's voice asked. Emma and Henry looked up and the dragon was gone but Regina was looking down at them through the crate opening. All the other towns people had disappeared; Ruby, Geppetto, Sheriff Graham...even Pongo was gone.

_"He's here. He's fine,"_ said Emma.

_"Well pass him up!"_ Regina had cranked the cable wire up enough just for Henry to grab hold his foster mothers hands as she reached down for him. With a heavy lift Regina pulled Henry up out of the shaft and set him on the ground out of Emma's sight.

_"Regina!"_ Emma called, swinging helplessly. The Mayor reappeared a second later and reached down to help Emma. But when the saviour held up her arms Regina tightly grabbed hold of her wrists and dug her nails into Emma's flesh causing Emma to hiss in pain. A blue and purple whirlwind appeared around them with Regina sitting at the edge but Emma was in the middle of the vortex. The harness and cable vanished and Emma could feel herself being sucked in, with wide fearful eyes she looked up at the Evil Queen wearing her signature evil smirk.

_"I'll take good care of my son,"_ Regina said before letting go of Emma's wrists.

Emma screamed as she fell. Her arms and legs flailed with the wind along with her yell that ricocheted all around all until that final second when she saw the ground at her nose tip.

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In the Fairy Tale world Emma's eyes opened to see tree branches above her. She sat bolt upright, her heart thumped against her chest and her breathing came out in short breaths. Anxiety churned in the pit of her stomach. She looked around franticly expecting to be in her bed in the apartment she had shared with Mary Margaret but instead she out in the middle of the forest in a world she didn't know.

A contained fire marked the centre of the makeshift camp Mulan had set up before sundown. Said female warrior was currently asleep by the trunk of an oak tree while her hand grasped her sword in a firm grip. Aurora, even though she was reluctant to sleep, she had dozed off in front of the fire with tear stained cheeks. Next to Emma, in front of a shrub, Snow White was sleeping softly, her body facing Emma's direction and a hand lay out as though she had wanted her daughter to grasp it before they had gone to sleep. But Emma had rolled over and faced the other way.

Tears stung Emma's eyes as her nightmare replayed in her mind. She stood up quietly and carefully walked around the burning embers of the fire and took a short walk in the woods. It was still dark out but over in the east a faint light was starting to appear.

Shoulders shaking, not only from the cold air, Emma pulled her knees to her chest and buried her head. A part of her was telling her to stop being so silly and to go back to sleep but every minute that had passed after Henry had eaten that apple turnover had been a frenzy of madness for her emotions and Emma needed to let it out. And just when she had been reunited with her son she had been ripped apart from him again.

Letting out a choked out sob Emma wiped the hot tears from her eyes but jumped and raised her head when she felt a blanket being wrapped around her. She hadn't been gone for more than twenty minutes but it was long enough for Snow White to sense she had wondered off from the camp.

"Emma," Snow breathed, her heart was breaking at the sight of her upset daughter. She sat down next to Emma who had quickly wiped her eyes and under her nose and gave Snow a watery smile with tired bloodshot eyes.

"I-I'm fine," Emma muttered. Snow White raised a slim black eyebrow and Emma looked away with a fresh batch of tears breaching the surface of her blue eyes. Tentatively Snow reached out and placed a comforting hand on Emma's shoulder.

"What's wrong?" she asked, softly. Emma let out a dry laugh and sniffed.

"What's wrong?" she repeated, crying out. "What's wrong is that I'm separated from my son who is now stuck with Regina. I was reunited with my parents yesterday after twenty eight years thinking they had abandoned me but actually they love me and are fairy tale characters. And now I'm trapped in a world I know nothing of camping out with Sleeping Beauty and Mulan!"

Emma looked up at her mother and was greeted with a sympathetic smile and a little shoulder rub. Strangely this calmed Emma slightly.

"I know it's tough for you to take all this in and I don't expect you to accept it straight away but you have to know Charming and I wanted to give you your best chance. If we had kept you with us, you would have been stuck just like the rest of us. Never aging, you would have been a baby forever and you would never have become the woman you are today and who I am so, so proud of," Snow said, tears had started to well up in her eyes now but they weren't falling.

"You wouldn't have had your marvellous little boy too if you had stayed and Henry will be safe with his granddad. James won't let Regina go anywhere near him," promised Snow. Emma ducked her head and silently whispered.

"But what if I never see him again?" Snow put a hand under her daughters chin and lifted her head up gently so she could look at Emma in her eyes.

"Never give up on hope. Henry found you once and James has found me every time without fail. Our family always finds one another no matter how far apart we are."

Emma nodded her head, slowly starting to feel reassured. Snow was right, she couldn't give up, not when Henry needed her.

She gave the woman with cropped ebony hair a small smile. "Thanks."

Snow White put a hand on her daughter's cheek and wiped away a single tear and returned the smile. "It's what mothers are for."

With those words out in the open Snow scooted closer and brought Emma in for a hug. Tensed and insecure Emma remained frozen, like the first time her parents had hugged her, but then a wall around her heart crumbled away. She rested her head on Snow's shoulder, closed her tired eyes against her tears and allowed herself to be held. Snow felt elated but she was cautious to show off her full emotion in case Emma got freaked out but for the second time in under a day Snow had got to hug her little girl.

However before Snow could wish that they could stay in this moment a minute longer Emma detached herself from her mother's grasp.

"We should get back to camp," the blonde murmured. Even though Emma was right Snow found she was reluctant to agree.

"You're right."

Together the two of them stood up and Snow led the way back towards the camp. As they walked through the forest, stepping over upturned roots and fallen branches, Emma told Snow White about her nightmare. She hadn't planned on telling anyone about it and keep it to herself like she always had done but Snow had come out to search for her so Emma felt her mother deserved to know why she had gone for a night time stroll. Snow White listened with eager ears, raring to receive any information about her daughter, and the more she heard about the dream, the more she wanted to cuddle Emma again but she restrained herself for the good of their relationship.

"I used to have dreams like that," Snow whispered. They had arrived back at camp and were making sure to tiptoe and not make any sounds so they didn't accidently wake up Aurora or Mulan.

"Really?" asked Emma, as she lay down. She wondered how Mary Margaret could have had dreams similar to Emma's when the woman hadn't known she'd had a daughter.

Snow White lay down next to Emma. "It was when I was pregnant. I used to dream about taking walks in the wood around our castle when I'd hear my baby crying and no matter where or how I long I searched I couldn't find you and then I would hear Regina's laughter before waking up. James would comfort me, and then possibly find me some food if I was having cravings, but then we'd lie side by side, he'd take my hand and we would go back to sleep."

Emma watched as Snow smiled fondly at those memories, a time that was yesterday to her memory but had actually happened over twenty-eight years ago. Looking now Emma saw that Snow had laid out her hand again as thought it was a force of habit. Reaching out Emma interlocked fingers with her mothers. Snow gazed into Emma's eyes.

"M-Maybe you could hold my hand tonight?" Emma asked, timidly, knowing she sounded soppy and ridiculous.

But Snow White gave her a look that was filled with pure joy and happiness so sounding soppy and silly didn't matter to Emma anymore because she knew she had made one of her mother's dreams come true.

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**Emma's dream scene was inspired by the stampede scene in Lion King. :) Had to get some Disney reference in there somehow.**

**Anyway, I hope you readers enjoyed it and don't forget to leave a review! Let me know what you thought. :)  
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**Reeves3.  
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